Bannedforlife

All the articulations from Cavi's brassline seem choppy and have so much tongue I can see them popping through their bells.

Trumpet scream note on a high C? Get out of here!

Annnd my subwoofer just had a seizure.

Heard that too. Glaring intonation problems.

That is a lot of high end right there... Not digging the ensemble sound.

I'm not sure what everyone's beef is with Crowns brass tonight. Even at their worst tonight they outperformed most brasslines in history IMHO. I did hear some ragged releases but the book itself is dam impressive.

Overheard from back channels that Madison offered to pay full tuition for trumpet screamers. They should have offered more than full tuition lol

Trust me you're not alone on this one.

Not digging the blend of the the bone ensemble. Just doesn't do it for me.

No question that's a Brad Green hornline right there!

Not so fast. Crossmen have a lot of open 5ths on their sustained chords that are not difficult to tune. Blue Stars have a harder book and some difficult staging but Crossmen's brass does not outperform Blue Stars IMHO

What the heck, major drop in video quality in the feed?

What the heck, major drop in video quality in the feed?

And why wont it let me delete my double posts?

One of my favorite drill moments from BD this year is when the company front moves diagonally backfield and each count another person breaks off the line in double time. Another favorite moment that made me smile was at the beginning when various members broke out of the form to do body movement. It's not that these things haven't been done before, but how it is done. Just like all 12 notes have been used before but in different orders and octaves and occupy different space in time. The same song fast or slower than usual can have a completely different feel. Just because you arrange the notes sporadically in a way that's never been done before does not necessarily mean it's innovative. Anyone can fart notes onto a page and convince themselves they are innovative, same goes with drill. I like to compare BD's drill to a flock of birds flying through the air. One second the flock appears uniform, the next they change direction and is apparently random, it suddenly pops into clarity again. BD's drill is the same way that it can appear random at times but there is always balance and direction to the visual concepts. So there's your answer. In all honesty when I first started watching drum corps I was confused why the drill didn't make shapes that corresponded to the show, I couldn't tell what they were "supposed" to be shapes of. But obviously that's not how art works, and it took a lot of studying of BD's shows and similar productions to grasp the artistic nature of what I was seeing. Nowdays when I watch BD's shows, my creative spirit resonates very strongly with their visual design and is very stimulating to watch. But that's just my perspective. Most fans stop at either "people and judges are nuts to like this crap" or "it's too advanced and you just don't get it". When I was younger I definitely didn't "get it" and was scratching my head as to why BD always won with what I was convinced were ridiculous shows, but now their shows makes perfect sense to me and are a very moving experience.

Couple observations from tonight: Blue Stars are looking MUCH cleaner visually. Their confidence with the drill has improved dramatically. Brasswise I felt overall they had a good show with the exception of some noticeable fracks in the trumpets in the opening statement. The hornline as a whole is lush and has a great sound in ensemble sections. My only concern is that sometimes when the hornline is spread across the field vertically the articulations of certain passages lose some clarity. All in all a great show from a great drum corps. Loved the new tag ending! Boston Crusaders shown is really growing on me. I believe it is fair they were over a point ahead of Blue Stars tonight. Their visual technique is clean and uniform and their presence was noticeably a step ahead of the corps prior. They execute VERY well, and I've said this before, despite some impractical drill writing. Some of it is just written dirty and is near impossible to clean and that is no fault of this great drum corps. Brasswise they were tight and there was balance and cohesion the entire show, great writing and staging makes all the difference in this show. Blue Knights blew me away with tasty GE once again as expected. The show just flows. I don't even mind most of the narration. Their drill may not be as difficult as the two corps before them but the GE is so stunning that I can totally understand why they are so far ahead. This is one of my favorite shows this season. Haven't seen Phantom yet because their show bores me, so I can't comment on them except I really really hope Blue Knights can knock out Phantom because no matter how much Phantom cleans or changes their show I do believe Blue Knights have the better total package by far. SCV also had to wait until tomorrow as it is getting late and I work again in the morning. I am very curious where this 94.075 will slot them tomorrow when all is said and done. Blue Devils just blows my mind everytime I see them this year. The drill is so innovative and they execute the most difficult sections with such grace it is a real treat to watch this drum corps perform. The visuals are so pleasing to the eye, there is always something going on but it never appears cluttered. The brassline is naming their book, soloists were great, added brownie points for trumpet high notes throughout the show! New ending is growing on me, such a fantastic package executed at such an undisputably high level. It will be interesting to see which corps if any will get even close to 96.825 tomorrow. Should be interesting!

I'm not the biggest fan of props but Blue Stars are nailing their show visually in a way that hasn't happened since 2011. Crown last year had the craziest drill I'd seen in a while. Cadets haven't done high velocity drill for years now. Sorry for my misdirected comment, but having marched high velocity drill in 09 and 11 Madisons show to my eyes is nothing to write home about.

That is lovely, but far from worth excusing obnoxious bone players that my dad (professional trombone player) endearingly says are "like a bull in a China shop."

I agree that stranger things have happened in the past, but I think BD, Bluecoats, Cadets, Crown, and SCV have far greater chances of medalling than Cavi's. I wouldn't mind seeing Cadets BS show getting knocked out of the top 5 though IMHO

A lot of times it's people actually marching these corps that see heated debates detracting from simply enjoying the activity and diffuse it by saying "it's just band". Those who have marched know what it takes to rehearse and perform 12+ hours a day for 3 months on end. It is a total immersion of heart, mind, and soul, and that is what's truly important for these young performers. Not saying that competing isn't part of the fun, but anyone can sit on DCP and whine about scores and placements, which to me completely misses the point.

I appreciate your optimism but I don't see this happening.

Somebody that could be doing at least a million better things with their time.

And? Madison jazz running at an 8 to 5 for 16 counts 3 times during their show and doing body movement the rest of the time is not high speed drill.

You are aware Blue Stars were at that show, right?

It went wrong.